6 minute read

Disappointment in council parkingsurvey

ICOMPLETED the recent councilparking survey online and was very disappointed,asitappears to be aimed at justifying the removal of on-street parking rather than determining customer needs.

Idobelieve that my 30-plus years experience as a traffic and road safetyengineer wouldgive me some understanding of driver, bicycleand pedestrian needs and behaviour.

Inotice thatcouncil is nowundertaking traffic surveys in Kay Street (all those rubber hoses across the road) and wonder if this is the prelude to another misguided reduction in the speed limit.

The speed reduction in BreedStreethas resulted in many more drivers exceeding the posted speed limit. When it was 60 kilometres per hour, maybe 10 per cent of drivers exceeded the speed limit by less than 5kph, while avery small number would blatantly speed. Now it would be more like 30 per cent or more exceeding 40kph.

Icould ask council for information, but it seems to me that they have apolicy of not providing responses other than the automated 'we have received your request'.

Graham Shaw Traralgon

Shave at the Junction

IN reply to the letter fromChris Tanti, CEO of Leukaemia Foundation, reference World’sGreatest Shave.

Overrecent years, the Grand Junction Hotel, Traralgon has hosted aWorld’s Greatest Shave to raise money and awareness for Leukaemia.

The event will be held again this year. The date has yet to be set but will be in April/May.

We are urging people to participate in this event, and we are looking for folk to volunteer to do the shave.

We work with the Grand Junctionand assist them in this event.

As accredited fundraisers for the foundation, we know that the money will be used to help patients and families affected by this disease.

Our club -Our KindaCountry Club Inc. -has been fundraising for the foundation for many years, and once again, we urge folk to get behind this local event.

You can register by calling 1800 500 088 or visit worldsgreatestshave.com

AVision to Cure, aMission to Care.

Dawn O’Connell Traralgon

On the seventh day

AGREAT maiden speech by the NationalsMartin Cameron in Parliament.

He would have to be the first blue collar worker to represent his community(LV Express 15/02/23)

Iwonderifany of those in Parliament know what aspanner or screwdriver is, certainly not the three stooges in the photo on the opinion page -Andrews, D'Ambrosio and Shing.

The letters fromJanet Price, Patrick Ansell, Phillip James and Joseph Lis were equally to the point.

Ithink Patrick Ansell's questiontoHarriet Shing was perhapstoo simple. Ifail to see how this politician can claim in her ads to be "working hard for the community" when she was having drinks in Port Douglas with Lisa Nevilleseveral months back. Iwonder if Ms Shing is not too busy in Port Douglas could she get an expert to tell everyone in the Valley where all these 10,000 jobs are coming from that was promised before the election?

Phillip James is spot on regarding 'Nuclear the Answer' yet nobody from the federal government will venture to France and see how it all works for the French people.

Anthony Albanesehas beenflying everywhere but France.Heonly spends four hoursinAliceSprings to see the tragedy there, preferring to spend three daysatthe tennisand now his priorityisa gay mardi-gras in Sydney.

In order to convinceAnthonyAlbanese, Daniel Andrews, the Greens and other peoplewho want to shutdownour power stations, killoff manufacturing and small businesses, whynot turnoff their gas and electricity for seven days and see how they all cope. Let's see what happens on the seventh day.

Brian Mawhinney Traralgon

Dense fuel source needed

WHEN Ivisited my Polish father's grave in 1988 at Hazelwood Cemetery, Ifelt sad that he had only aplaque to mark his grave and not aheadstone as he deserved to be honoured with amonument of some sort.

However, the nearby sight of the eightgiant chimneys that once stood atop Hazelwood Power Station (it was prematurely decommissioned in 2017 via Chairman Dan's signature) consoled me andInostalgically thought to myself: "Thoseeight chimneys areamonument to my father's memory and it is fitting thatheisburied here, as he worked at anearby power station(Yallourn) for 22 years".

Istill visit my father's grave, but the chimneys of Hazelwwood Power Station are irrevocably gone, blown up in 2020 on the order of Chairman Dan.

My point is, instead of Chairman Dan adopting awrecking-ballapproach to Victoria's coal-fired power stations, he should at the very least be 'mothballing' them (just in case) as Germany had wisely done when it fired-up its dormant coal-fired power stations againwhenrenewables turnedout to be amassive dud which they are

In reality, renewables do notwork'on alarge scale' such as powering awhole country, and which Germany finally realised at greatcostto its economy.

Thus,man had to wait until July20, 1969, before he could walk on the moon because it was technologically impossible to do so in 1869.

Sure,wecan install solar panels on the roofs of houses and industry already that work 'on a smallscale' but this cannot be replicated 'on alarge scale' (and has never been successfully done in any country in the world) despite the spin-doctoring assurances of the Labor-Green nexus in Canberra and Spring Street.

As the humanpopulationgrows, civilization requires an energy grid with adense fuel sourcesomething that takes up as little of our productive land as possible.

Covering riverdeltas and primeagricultural fields with solar panels and windturbinesisthe work of morons who haveconfusedsteel bird mincers with chapel steeples in their quixotic quest for an imaginary net-zero.

These are not monuments to progress, they are symbols of utter human idiocy that will be rusting long before the climate apocalypse fails to manifest.

Joseph Lis Morwell

Kudos

TO Traralgon Council (Latrobe City), re your phone message to me about acomplaint Imade.

Yes. Idid notice that the paving Icomplained about between Chemist Warehouse and limis Cafe had been remedied.

Thank you for such prompt action on replacing that hazardous section of pavement, and at such abusy time of year for you.

Well done!

June Douglas Traralgon

Set the record straight

ENGIE Power, whatever happened to your selfproclaimed debt of $66 million in 2016 for your catastrophic open cut coal mine fire that choked Morwell with thick heavy black smoke for 55 days and nights, yes Melbourne, 55 days and very toxic nights in 2014.

Okay, the Royal Commission delivered afine of $1.4 million, with the premature death of 11 citizens this equates to an insult to the families of those citizens, so nowEngie tell everybody what happened to the $66 million that is your debt to the Country Fire Authority and those who have died.

Don Duthie Traralgon

Political achievements

HARRIET Shing MP, state member for Morwell, I’m sure you’ll agree that as apolitician you are extremely well paid for the work thatyou do on behalf of the peopleofMorwell, and that when you eventually leave politics, you will be well provided for by the public in the form of an offensive superannuation pay-out and other perks thatex-politicians get such as government jobs and tribunal appointments etc.

Given you have been in Parliament since 2014, Iwould be interested to know what achievements you have personally secured for your electorate, and Idon’tinclude responding to constituents with thestandard pro-forma type letter as an achievement or as proper representation, nor do Iconsider achievements by the government as your achievements.

Ihope you don’t need to refer this question to some bureaucrat for some long winded political spinresponse, whichiswhatpoliticianstend to do.

The electorate voted for you to do ajob, we didn’t vote for you to ignore us or refer complaintsto others to handle.

If you are unwilling to do the job which we pay you handsomely to do, then resign and apologise. Inote that you place advertisements in the Express whereyou claimthat you are working hard for ‘your community’.

I’m curious, don’t you mean ‘your working hard for our community’. Iassumeyou consider yourself amember of our community or am Iwrong.

PS. I’m still waiting for aresponse to my claim that Gippsland Water is ripping us off with their billing practices, which any reasonable person would deem disproportionateand aburden to our alreadyhighcostofliving pressures.

Let’s see if you are genuine about representing us, or as you put it, ‘Working hardfor your community’.

Patrick Ansell Morwell

Have your say

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